Stream Restoration with Beaver Dam Analogs

Project Summary

Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) have been used as a restoration technique in the Bridge Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) in the Lower John Day subbasin (OR) since 2009. BDAs are used to stabilize existing beaver dams that are prone to washout in high flows and are also carefully placed in low gradient sections of channel that have promise for flow dispersal to inset floodplains.

BDAs are effective for both laterally dispersing flows and encouraging in-channel deposition with slow water velocities and have been shown to increase local beaver dam building activity, improve fish habitat and complexity, increase riparian vegetation abundance and complexity, and raise groundwater tables.